Trip = Booked

I booked the family’s much needed trip to Florida the other day through expedia for December. Well, I shouldn’t say the family…it’s more like myself, my mother, and my father. My bro and sis cannot attend.

So now that it’s booked, the next and very important order of business is booking dialysis. I called the dialysis unit in Clearwater that I went to previously. I spoke to Pam (secretary maybe??). I was delighted when I told her my first name and that I had been there in 2007 and she remembered me…even remembered my last name! 🙂

Pam told me that a new procedure was in place and I would need to call a central booking office in order to book my dates. With that said, Pam said that she’d write my name in the calendar to kind of “reserve” my spot for me. I wanted to make sure I did this now before our vacation date creeps up on us and I’m left dialysis-less.

Pam told me that because I was a past “customer”, the price I paid previously would be the same price that I could pay now, however the price had increased. She gave me the phone number to the central booking office so that I could get the process started.

When I called the central booking office, I spoke to a very nice lady who told me all of the information I would need to gather in order to get the process started. The last time that I had visited the Clearwater clinic, I paid $200 a dialysis session. When I spoke to this lady, she said the price would be something like (can’t remember the exact number she gave me) $650 a session for international patients??

I’m going on the hope that Pam is correct and I can pay the same rate that I paid last tine. But….c’mon…$650 for ONE session? I have to pay all of this upfront myself. It’s already expensive going on vacation in the first place…but to ask for SO much money is simply nuts!

You know, dialysis is offered globally for people like me who like to travel every now and then when I can afford it…but then I get gorged for my treatment! I only get $210 per session reimbursed from the government. It simply isn’t fair. I didn’t ask to be on dialysis. I don’t want to be on dialysis. I have to pay for medication which is also expensive! Why do I gotta turn my meagre pockets inside out just to get away for a week?

I will get my papers in order and send them off. I certainly hope that Pam is right and I only have to pay $200 usd per session.

If there are any dialyzers out there in the Clearwater/Tampa area who can provide some assistance in terms of perhaps giving me some good clinics (with good prices) or some web links where I can find some info…post it up in my comments section of this post!